FRISCO, Texas – With three weeks to play, it's time to get down to brass tacks.
The Cowboys are a couple wins away from hosting a playoff game, though that's admittedly hard to believe at this juncture. They're riding a three-game losing streak, and they've lost their last two in convincing fashion.
Asked about it Tuesday morning, though, Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones was adamant that his team possesses the necessary traits to flip that around in the coming weeks.
"It has enough talent. It has enough fire. It has enough invested in its preparations," Jones told 105.3 FM The Fan. "They have worked all season. We are reasonably healthy."
It's a familiar refrain at this point in the season, which is part of why this season has felt so frustrating. With just a couple exceptions, such as the loss of Tyrone Crawford and the neck injury to Leighton Vander Esch, the Cowboys have been reasonably healthy for most of the year.
To this point, it hasn't helped them put together their first consecutive wins since the start of November. And it hasn't changed the fact that their only wins outside the NFC East have come against 3-10 Miami and 3-9-1 Detroit.
Still, Jones believes the Cowboys can attain the consistency that has eluded them for most of this season.
"We can, yes, go out and play, and if we play and have a consistent consistency between the assignments, don't have breakdowns there," he said. "If we can hit some fields goals that we missed, if we can get turnovers, all of those things are obvious."
Fortunately, the tide may be turning in a few of those facets. Despite the loss, the Cowboys did force two takeaways in Chicago – their first in a month. On top of that, they replaced Brett Maher with Kai Forbath on Monday, which they no doubt hope will result in more points from their special teams.
As for the rest, Jones reiterated that his team has the right makeup to make up for the past month.
"We have the right attitude," he said. "Are we physically able to have the fire enough to win that game and play better defense than we played against Chicago? Yes."
